Neighbors
by booksdefygravity
Summary: In which Scorpius owns the apartment above Rose's, they attend college together, and things get complicated. Fluffy AU multichap.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: An absurdly fluffy Scorose meet-cute. Not going for realism here, I assure you. Enjoy!**

**xxxxx**

"_Would you please shut up_?" Rose shouted, pressing her hands against her ears.

It was already seven o'clock at night, and she _still _wasn't finished with her essay. Normally she was pretty good at writing- essays were rarely a problem.

But on that day, her upstairs neighbor was playing music at a distractingly high volume. Rose had no idea who the neighbor was, although Lily and Dominique, who shared her apartment, had seen him once before and reported that he was extremely attractive. Rose didn't particularly care. He could be a Michelangelo statue brought to life, and it wouldn't excuse the absurd volume of his music.

Rose twisted the end of her fishtail braid and stared at the computer screen, willing words to appear there. In the apartment above hers, the music faded away.

_Thank God, _she thought. _Finally._

Then the next song started.

Rose slammed her laptop shut, probably harder than she should have, and got to her feet. "That's it," she said.

"That's what?" said Dominique, who was lying on the couch, reading a magazine.

"Operation Murder the Upstairs Neighbor has begun," said Rose, stepping into her flip-flops.

"Rose, what did I tell you about murdering our neighbors?" said Lily, emerging from her bedroom.

"He's been blasting music for the past two hours, and this paper is due at midnight," said Rose, opening the apartment door. "I'll be back in ten."

"Have fun with Hot Neighbor!" Lily called after her, accompanied by Dominique's whistles.

Rose slammed the door shut behind her. "My cousins are the most irritating people on the planet," she muttered. Deciding to take the stairs instead of the creaky old elevator, she hurried up to the third landing, the music getting louder and louder as she grew closer to door number five.

With hesitating, she lifted her hand and knocked on the door.

There was no response, save for the sound of Katy Perry singing at an absurdly high volume. Rose knocked again, louder this time, and then waited for a minute.

Nothing.

_The music must be too loud, _she thought. She thought about kicking the door, decided she didn't want to break her toes, and tried the door handle.

To her surprise, the door swung open.

The apartment beyond had the same layout as her own, but that was the only similarity. While Lily, Dominique, and Rose kept their apartment brightly lit and tidy, the room beyond the door was dark and messy. Heavy blankets hung over the windows, and the floor was covered in stacks of books and what appeared to be a box of donuts.

Strangest of all, lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, was a boy of around nineteen, Rose's own age. His head was just a few inches away from the CD player, which was probably doing serious damage to his ears.

"Hello!" said Rose loudly. "Would you mind?"

The boy sat bolt upright, something like hope flickering across his face, only to be replaced by complete confusion. Somewhat belatedly, Rose realized that barging into a stranger's apartment probably wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. _Oh, well._

"Would you please _turn that down_?" she said.

The boy stared at her for a second, then turned and pressed the power button on the CD player. The music came to an abrupt stop. _Silence, blessed silence, _thought Rose.

"Do I know you?" said the boy, not making any move to get up off the floor. Rose couldn't help but feel somewhat awkward standing over him, but she plowed on.

"No, you don't know me," she said, "but I am starting to get unreasonably acquainted with your CD collection."

The boy blinked. "What?"

"Your music," said Rose, rolling her eyes. "You may not have noticed this, but it's loud. _Very _loud. Also, it kind of sucks. And I honestly wouldn't mind, but I live in the apartment below yours and I have this essay about Aristotle due at midnight, so would you mind keeping it down for the next four and a half hours?"

He blinked. "Oh," he said. "Oh god, I'm really sorry." He ran his fingers through his blond hair. "I guess I just didn't notice. It's been kind of a crappy day."

Rose noticed for the first time that his clothes were wrinkled and his eyes red-rimmed. Other than that, however, Domi and Lily hadn't been lying: with his blond hair and gray eyes, he certainly wasn't hard to look at.

But he really did look miserable.

"Um," she said, feeling even more awkward than before. "Are you sure… I mean, are you okay?"

He bit his lip. "Yeah," he said. "I mean, I guess. I don't know." He sighed. "Not really. I just found out that my girlfriend's been cheating on me for the past five months."

"Ah," said Rose. "Hence the whole lying-on-the-floor-in-misery thing." She was familiar with the routine, mostly because of Dominique

"Yeah," he said. She thought he might have smiled, just a little bit. "It's her music, actually. Stupid of me to listen to it."

"A little bit, yeah," said Rose. "But if it makes you feel any better, your girlfriend has really terrible taste in music."

"Ex-girlfriend," he said, but he definitely smiled this time. "I should probably throw out the CDs. And the pictures, come to think of it."

"Probably," said Rose.

"Hey," he said. "You said you're writing an essay on Aristotle, right?"

She nodded.

He got to his feet and headed across the room. "Hang on just a second," he said, rummaging through one of his many stacks of books. Rose stood and waited.

"Here," he said, a minute later, handing her a slim volume. "This might help."

"Thank you," she said. She found herself smiling at him.

He smiled back. "No problem. I'll keep the music down."

"Thanks," she said. "Sorry for barging in on you."

"No problem," he said.

"Although you probably shouldn't leave your door unlocked like that," she said, raising her eyebrows. "Someone might rob you."

"Probably true," he said. "I was just hoping she would… I don't know, come back and apologize, or something." He ran his fingers through his hair again.

Rose shook her head. "If someone cheats on you for five months, even the best apology doesn't mean anything. That's inexcusable. If it was once, maybe, but five months? No way."

"You give pretty good advice, Neighbor Girl," he said.

Something in her chest fluttered and took flight.

"Rose," she said. "I'm Rose."

"Scorpius," he said. They shook hands. Rose felt a blush rise to her cheeks as his fingers tightened against hers.

"Well," she said, when he withdrew his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Scorpius."

"You too, Rose."

"I should probably go," she said, gesturing at the door. "You know, essay to write and all."

Scorpius nodded. "Good luck with that."

"Thank you," she said. "Well, I'll… see you around, I guess."

He nodded again. "Hopefully." He smiled, blushing a little bit, and the fluttery feeling intensified.

Feeling somewhat reluctant, she opened the door and stepped into the hallway. "Bye!" The door swung shut behind her.

Releasing a quiet breath of air, she headed for the staircase. _Dominique and Lily are going to have a field day with this, _she thought, but her mind was mostly on other things: Scorpius's smile and messy hair and the way his voice had sounded when he'd said her name.

Distantly, she heard the sound of clattering footsteps, and then a voice said "Rose!"

She stopped and turned to see Scorpius standing at the top of the stairs, clothes and hair rumpled, messy and utterly endearing.

"Yes?" she said, looking up at him.

"It was really nice to meet you," he said, grinning. And with that, he turned and vanished.

Rose shook her head and hurried back down the stairs, book tucked under her arm, still smiling.

He was, without a doubt, going to be a very annoying neighbor… just not in the way she'd first expected.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello, wonderful human beings! This story got so much nice feedback (thank you!) and several people asked me to continue it, so I couldn't resist. Here's Chapter Two!**

**xxxxx**

"Rosie, wake up!"

"Go away," Rose groaned. "Let me sleep." She burrowed deeper into her pillow. How in the name of god did Lily manage to be so _awake_ before ten in the morning?

"Am I interrupting your dreams about Hot Neighbor?" said Lily, jumping onto Rose's bed and bouncing up and down.

Rose sat bolt-upright. "Would you please stop going on about that boy? Honestly, I have one conversation with a boy and it's all you can talk about all weekend." Her eyes widened. "Crap. Weekend. Weekend is over."

"Which is why I'm waking you up!" said Lily. "Class in half an hour, remember?"

"Shoot!" said Rose, shoving Lily aside and scrambling out of bed. "How do I always manage to forget an alarm?" She yanked on the nearest pair of black skinny jeans, pulled a t-shirt advertising her favorite band over her head, and hastily put her hair up in a ponytail.

"You are a fashion plate, sweet cousin of mine," said Lily, who was still lounging on the bed.

"Why are you even awake?" said Rose, slinging her bag across her shoulder and heading down the hallway. "You don't have work until this afternoon, lucky duck."

"Well, someone has to function as your human alarm clock," said Lily, following her into the kitchen. "Cereal?"

"No time." Rose grabbed a granola bar out of the box and headed for the door. "See you!"

"Bye!"

Just in time, Rose remembered not to slam the apartment door on her way out- Dominique was always complaining that Rose woke her up every morning by being too loud.

As she ran down the apartment steps, taking them two at a time, Rose realized that she'd forgotten to make a cup of coffee on her way out. _I am officially doomed_, she thought. _Why_ had she signed up for a Monday morning class? _Oh well. Too late now. _She rushed down the last three stairs...

...and ran straight into Scorpius.

There was a loud crash as the stack of textbooks he'd been carrying tumbled across the floor.

"Oh, god," she said, dropping onto her knees and scrambling to pick them up. "I am so sorry- I'm running late and I wasn't paying attention-

"Oh, no, it's my fault," said Scorpius. "My bag broke this morning, I really shouldn't be carrying all these books around." He scooped the rest of the books up into his arms.

"I feel your pain," said Rose, getting to her feet. "Literally. I've got four in my backpack right now. But it's really my fault. We've got to stop meeting in such violent ways."

He grinned. "Do you go to Evington?"

"Yup. Sophomore," she said. "You?"

"Freshman," he said, biting his lower lip.

"Ah, so I'm older than you!" she said. "A triumph for me."

"Actually, I took a gap year," he said. "So I'm guessing we're the same age."

"Foiled again," said Rose. "Everyone is always older than me."

"Technically that can't be true," said Scorpius. "There are a lot of seven-year-olds in the world, you know."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I am nineteen years old. It's not my fault I'm short. I think Hugo stole an extra foot from me."

He laughed. "Who's Hugo?"

"My darling baby brother. He's a beanpole," said Rose. "Oh, crap, I've probably missed the bus. I've really got to go. It was really nice to run into you- great, now I'm making puns."

"I made you miss the bus?" said Scorpius. "Can I give you a ride?"

Rose hesitated. "If I run, I might be able to-

"No, no, it's okay," said Scorpius. "I mean, I'm going there anyways. Seriously, I wouldn't want you to be late because of me."

_Don't be ridiculous_, she thought. _Just say yes._ "That would be amazing."

"Great!" he said. "Come on, I'm parked just across the street."

Off-campus apartment and a car? This is all very posh, she thought. Of course, she herself had an off-campus apartment, but that was only because she, Dominique, and Lily pooled their money together to rent it.

"So," she said, as she climbed, somewhat awkwardly, into the passenger's seat of Scorpius's car. "What class do you have this morning?"

"Nothing, actually," he said. "My idiot of a best mate has decided that he wants to start a band, so we're all meeting up to practice."

"A band!" she said. "Let me guess. Guitar?"

"Drums, actually," he said. "And a little bit of singing. What about you? Do you play any instruments?"

She laughed. "Hardly. Lily's got a pretty good voice, but I can't sing to save my own life."

"Who's Lily?"

"My cousin," said Rose. "I share a flat with her and our other psycho cousin, Dominique."

"That's an unusual name," he said, glancing over at her. Their eyes met, and she felt her cheeks grow warm.

_Damn it, Rose, he's not even flirting with you and you're blushing like a twelve-year-old._

"Yeah," she said. "My aunt is French, so we have Victoire, Dominique, and Louis."

"Very fancy."

"Yes, they're quite sophisticated. They're the only fancy ones in the family, though, I assure you."

"You have a lot of cousins?"

"Oh, god, tons," she said. "My dad came from a family of seven kids. It's a bit of a mess."

"Do your cousins go to Evington, too?"

"Dominique does. She's a Junior. Lily actually dropped out of high school and moved in with us. She's seventeen."

Scorpius whistled. "A dropout, huh? Was her family upset?"

"Her older brother was absolutely delighted," said Rose, rolling her eyes. "Her parents, not so much. But Lily's always been a free thinker, and she's doing really well. She's got an internship with a perfume-making company."

"Perfume?"

"She really loves perfume."

"What about you?"

"Do I really love perfume? No, I can't stand it."

"No," he said, flashing her a smile. "What do you really love? What are you studying?"

"Oh, right," she said. "I'm going into film. I want to be a movie director." When she was younger, she'd spent many hours forcing Lily, Dominique, Hugo, and all the rest to dress up in costumes and take part in her "movies."

"Really?" he said. "That's awesome!"

"Thanks!" she said. "What about you?"

"I have no idea," he said. "I've thought about law, but I've also thought about med school... I'm still undecided."

"You don't want to go into the music industry?"

"Not really. That's really just a hobby." He pulled into the school parking lot.

"Well, there's still plenty of time," said Rose. She climbed out of the passenger's seat and closed the car door. "Thank you again for the ride. I really appreciate it."

"No problem," said Scorpius. "Hey, what class do you have this morning?"

"Philosophy," she said. "And then Shakespeare studies at two this afternoon."

"Shakespeare, philosophy, and film?" he said, as they headed down the path. "Very diverse."

"I have a lot of interests. Keeps life from getting boring."

"Hold on a second," he said, pausing and pulling a folded-up piece of paper from his pocket."Shakespeare studies at two, you said?"

She nodded.

"No way! Same here," he said. "I just transferred over. I'm taking Latin in the evenings now, so I can avoid Jessica."

"Jessica?"

"The Ex."

"Ahh," she said. "Well, I guess I'll see you at Shakespeare o'clock?"

He nodded. "See you then."

She waved goodbye and hurried across the lawn, resisting the urge to look back. _Well, _she thought, _at the very least, I know that I'll have _one _interesting class today._

**xxxxx**

**AN: Whatever shall happen next? Not-so-subtle-Shakespeare-flirting? Probably. Scorpius-and-Rose-as-Romeo-and-Juliet? Quite possibly. I really don't know. But there will be a chapter three, hopefully sometime next week!  
I'd also love to know what you thought of this chapter. Thanks for reading! **


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: CHAPTER THREE IS HERE! A huge thank you to everyone who has reviewed or followed :) I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**xxxxx**

Rose stared down at her copy of _Hamlet _and tried to concentrate, but her willpower didn't last long- she couldn't keep her eyes from flickering towards the doorway. Class had started nearly fifteen minutes before, so where was he?

_Not important. Read. _She read a few more lines. _Don't look towards the door._ _Just keep reading._

She looked towards the door.

And then, just like that, there he was. She felt like her stomach had been possessed by a large number of manic butterflies. Damn him. And his irritating messy hair that she kind of wanted to run her fingers through. And his adorably crooked smile. And his eyes. Especially damn his eyes and the way they lit up when they landed on her. She quickly smiled back and turned away, too fluttery to eavesdrop as he explained to their professor why he was late. A moment later, he slipped into the seat next to hers.

"I got lost," he whispered.

She grinned. "No maps for you?"

"I couldn't read a map to save my own life."

"Well, right now we're supposed to be reading Shakespeare," she said, gesturing at _Hamlet. _"Do you have a copy?"

He shook his head. "I read it in high school, though."

She laid her copy out on the table. "You can share mine." With that, she went back to reading, trying her best not to react as he leaned over the book and their arms brushed together.

Ten minutes later, Professor Flitwick spoke in his squeaky voice. "Now, let's discuss! Topic of the day: do you believe Hamlet is actually insane, or is he simply feigning insanity?"

A girl with curly brown hair raised her hand.

"Miss Brown?"

"In Act One, Scene Five, Hamlet tells Horatio that he's going to pretend to be crazy, so if Horatio notices any bizarre behavior, that's why," she said. "I think he's just pretending, to confuse everyone else."

"True, true," said Professor Flitwick, nodding enthusiastically.

"And Hamlet doesn't think he's crazy," added a boy seated on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't," said Rose, jumping into the discussion. "_I don't think I'm crazy _isn't the greatest guarantee that someone _isn't _crazy."

"He has a lot of violent outbursts," added Scorpius. "And his mood is constantly changing."

"All good points!" said the professor. "Miss Patil, your thoughts?"

The discussion went on for a while longer, until Professor Flitwick clapped his hands and announced "I look forward to reading your essays. Three pages. Due on Friday. Get to work!"

There were a few groans and some muttering, and then the rest of the class pulled out their pencils and notebooks and began to scribble.. Rose strongly suspected that most of them were doodling pictures of cats.

"So," she said to Scorpius, "what do you think?"

"Of Hamlet?" he said.

"Well, that too," she said. "But I meant the class."

"Ah," he said. "I like it. Flitwick seems cool."

"He's a bit crazy," she said. "You should have seen him when we did _Romeo and Juliet. _We had to act out all the sword fights with rolled-up magazines. I was Mercutio. It was pretty dramatic."

He laughed. "What was your essay topic for that unit?"

"Whether or not their relationship would have lasted."

"What'd you pick?"

"Guess."

He tilted his head to one side, considering. "I'm guessing no, you don't think it would have lasted."

"Bingo. What about you?" she said.

He wrinkled his nose in careful consideration. "No," he said eventually. "But that doesn't mean they didn't love each other, even if it was just for a little while." And then he smiled, which was really annoying of him, because his smile kind of made Rose want to kiss him and she'd known him for less than three days and Rose Weasley did not kiss people she'd only known for three days.

Instead, she leaned back in her chair. "So you're an optimist."

"Definitely," he said. "Let me guess. You consider yourself a _realist_, which means you're secretly a pessimist, right?"

"Don't be so critical," she said. "When you expect the best of things, it's easier to be let down. My way, I'm pleasantly surprised whenever something goes well."

Scorpius shook his head. "You're crazy. Looking forward to things is half the fun. Although I will admit I'm not particularly looking forward to this essay."

"Don't like writing?"

"No, I do," he said. "I just can never decide which side I want to defend."

"Optimism and indecision," she said, grinning.

"That's me." He brushed his fingers through his hair and fidgeted before looking up and meeting her eyes. "Is there any chance… I mean, um… would you like to work on the essays together, sometime?'

_WORK ON THE ESSAYS? _

_What does that _mean?

_Is this a date? Is this just friendship? Is this simply two people bonding over Hamlet's insanity? Or is he just a freeloader trying to take advantage of my essay-writing skills? _

Out loud, she said "Sure, why not? Maybe I can help you with your indecision problems."

"That'd be the day."

"When do you want to meet?"

"Five?" he suggested.

"Sure," she said. "Moose Mochas?" Moose Mochas was a nearby coffee shop, well known for its caffeinated beverages and fast internet connection, which meant it was always full of college students writing essays, studying for tests, or trying to speed-read Voltaire.

"Excellent," said Scorpius. "I'll see you then."

At that exact moment, Professor Flitwick called out "Class dismissed!" Rose leapt to her feet and shoved her things into her bag. "See you then!" she said. Scorpius smiled and waved.

She resisted the urge to skip as she made her way out of the building and down the lawn of the campus. She'd made it through her classes without her coffee, she didn't have much homework, and she had nearly three hours to get ready for her date/studying/deceptive freeloading session with Scorpius.

Of course, she also didn't have a ride home. She stared across the parking lot, trying to calculate if Lily was out of work yet and could come pick her up.

A car horn honked. Rose jumped. As though she had summoned her, Lily pulled up to the pavement and waved.

Rose opened the car door and dropped her bag onto the floor. "This is a surprise. How did you know I needed a ride?"

"I didn't." Lily looked grim. "Family emergency. Get in."

**xxxxx**

**AN: Thank you for reading! Don't forget to review :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hello, lovelies! I'm terribly sorry for the late chapter. It was supposed to be up on Sunday, but I got really distracted with stuff. Forgive me. Thanks for reading!**

**XXX**

"What kind of emergency are we talking here?" said Rose, frowning. "Code blue? Code green?"

"Yellow."

"Victoire and Teddy?"

"Louis and Lysander."

"Ah."

The code system was something the cousins had come up with several years before. Code blue meant friendship drama, code green meant parent drama, and code yellow meant relationship drama. It wasn't uncommon for all of the cousins to receive a text that read _Roxanne, code blue, _which generally meant Roxanne was having issues with her friends and they should all send her pictures of cats to cheer her up. _Dominique, code yellow, _was another message they all received often.

Rose didn't question Lily about the full situation. She was certain that she'd hear the whole thing several times before the night was over.

When Lily and Rose stepped through the door of the apartment, Dominique and her younger brother, Louis, were seated on the couch. Dominique had her arm wrapped around his shoulder, while he was slumped forward, his face tearstained and tired. Rose's heart twisted. Louis had always been one of her favorite cousins. When the littler ones argued about things, he was always willing to act as moderator and work things out for them. He was also especially good at talking to another cousin, Molly, who had several anxiety issues.

But at that moment, he looked absolutely miserable. Despite this, he lifted his head and gave Rose a shaky smile. "Hey, Ro."

"Hey," she said. She kicked off her shoes, dropped her bag on the floor, and climbed onto the couch, wiggling into place next to Louis and wrapping her arms around him.

He leaned into her. "Nice to see you again," he said. "Sorry I'm a total mess."

"Oh, please," she said. "This whole family is a bit of a mess."

"Agreed," said Dominique. "Especially me."

They laughed.

"So," said Lily, who was perched on an armchair, "do you want to talk about it?"

Louis sighed. "It's just the same stupid thing we keep coming back to. We both graduate in a few months and, chances are, we'll be going to different colleges. So how are we supposed to make this work? I mean, does anybody ever stay with the person they were with in high school?"

"Not really," said Dominique. Rose nudged her shoulder, and she rolled her eyes. "What? I'm not going to lie. The whole high-school-sweethearts-are-forever thing is a complete myth."

"I know," said Louis. "You don't have to tell me that, or him." He pressed his hands against his face, making his next words muffled. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to try."

"Just because it doesn't last forever doesn't mean it isn't real," said Rose. "That's what you mean, right?"

"I mean… I don't know what I mean." He pulled his hands away from his face. "I just love him a lot. And I don't want this to end just because we're going to different schools. But he doesn't think it's going to work, and so… I don't even know if we broke up or not. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now."

"Thank god I always have a solution for everything," said Lily. She jumped to her feet. "Cookies. Cookies are the solution. Preferably an abundance of them, in a wide variety. Possibly Chinese food, too. And Netflix. And maybe a dance party. Or two."

Louis laughed and wiped his face on his sleeve. "Okay."

"Excellent," said Lily. "Come on."

Together, the four cousins headed into the kitchen. Lily, who was always bossy, but especially so in the kitchen, made all of them put on oversized, colorful aprons, which Grandma Molly had given to the girls when they moved into their apartment. As they worked, they chattered about Louis's classes, Lily's job, Rose's Shakespeare essay- anything to keep Louis's mind off of his fight with Lysander.

"Ooh!" said Lily. "Tell him about Hot Neighbor, Rose!"

Rose tried her hardest not to blush and failed completely. _Damn Dad and his red hair genes._

Lily noticed and narrowed her eyes. "Rose?"

"It's nothing."

"Hot Neighbor?" said Louis. "This sounds like a story I want to hear."

Rose sighed with defeat. She knew from experience that her cousins would always get the story out of her eventually. "Okay, fine." While Lily whisked together flour and Dominique mixed eggs and milk, she recounted the story of how she'd gone up to Scorpius's apartment and yelled at him, and then added on the part where he gave her a ride and they agreed to meet up to work on their essays.

When she was finished, Lily gave a shriek of delight. "You have a _date_? And you didn't _tell me_? This is treachery! This is a betrayal! You can't keep these things from me!"

"Relax," said Rose, calmly rolling cookie dough into balls. "It's not a date. We're just writing essays."

"That's what they always say," said Lily. "Besides, now I only have an hour to get you ready!"

"Oh no," said Rose, lifting a finger. "There will be no _getting ready. _We're just studying. There's no way you're getting eyeliner on me."

Dominique shook her head. "You're a crazy child, Rose. Your face was made specifically for winged eyeliner."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'll pass. Besides, I might not even go. It's not every day you come visit us." She smiled at Louis.

"Oh no," he said, shaking his head. "You're going. I can eat cookies and analyze text messages with two cousins just as well as three."

"Technically I'm your sister, not your cousin, little bro," said Dominique.

"Yes, well, she's still going."

"Agreed!" said Lily. "And she's not going with that hair." She darted into her bedroom and emerged a moment later with a hairbrush.

Rose backed away. "What are you doing?"

"Relax, I'm just going to braid it," said Lily. "Just keep making cookies and try not to move your head."

There was no point in arguing. Rose obeyed.

"There," said Lily, a few minutes later. She wrapped a hair tie around the end of Rose's fishtail braid. "Perfect."

"Thanks, oh cousin of mine."

Across the kitchen counter, Louis was no longer rolling out cookies

"Lou?" said Lily.

He pressed the back of his wrist against his eyes, since his hands were covered in cookie dough. "Sorry," he said. "I just… I can't stop thinking about it. I hate fighting with him. It sucks." He lowered his hands and rolled out another ball of cookie dough. "It just really sucks."

"Hey," said Rose. "You don't need to apologize. We get it."

Lily walked over and hugged him. "By the way, do your parents know you're here?"

"Yeah," he said. "They said I could spend the night and come back tomorrow morning. They're going to call me in for school. I needed to get away for a little while."

Just then, his phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket, heedless of the cookie dough on his fingers, and looked down at the caller ID. "It's him."

"Nope, nope, nope," said Dominique. "Give it." She reached over, grabbed the phone from his hand, and pressed the green _talk _button. "Hello, this is Dominique!"

"Domi, give it back." Louis reached for it, but she climbed onto the kitchen counter, out of his reach.

"I'm terribly sorry, but you cannot speak to him at this point in time," Dominique continued. "I'm serious. You both need to chill. You can talk tomorrow. Also, please tell your mum the Weasley cousins say hi." She was quiet for a minute. "Oh, fine, if I must. Bye!" She hung up the phone and wiped the cookie dough off of it.

"What did he say?" said Louis immediately.

"He says he loves you and that he hopes you can talk tomorrow afternoon," said Dominique. She jumped off of the counter. "I'm assuming that means you have not broken up. Congratulations."

The oven beeped.

"Excellent!" said Lily. "Our first batch of cookies are done. Let's go lie on the bed and eat cookies and watch terrible shows on Netflix."

"Sounds good to me."

**XXX**

At 4:45, Lily made Rose get off of the bed and brush her teeth.

"Are you sure you don't want any winged eyeliner?" Dominique called.

Rose rinsed her toothbrush and put it back in the cabinet. "Quite sure, thank you." She grabbed her laptop and shoved it into her already-overcrowded backpack. "I'll be back in an hour or so. Don't do anything drastic." She pointed at Louis. "No moping."

"Byeeeee!" sang Lily.

"Have fun with your hot date!" Dominique added.

Rose rolled her eyes and stepped out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. For the first time, it occurred to her that she and Scorpius hadn't really needed to meet up at a cafe, since they lived one staircase away from each other, but oh well. She hurried down the steps and out the doors of the building. Luckily, Moose Mochas was just a block away. She tried to distract herself from her nervousness by thinking about _Hamlet _as she walked over, but it didn't work very well.

By the time she got there, the cafe was already crowded with students. She stood in the doorway for a moment, searching the tables for a head of messy blond hair.

Someone touched her on the shoulder. She turned to face them and discovered that Scorpius was standing next to her, his bag slung over his shoulders.

"I got here about a minute before you," he said, with a smile. "Hi."

Rose smiled back. "Hi."

**XXX**

**AN: Not a whole lot of Scorose in that one, I know! But the next chapter will be completely Scorose-y. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAACK! I know I vanished for an entire month, and I'm very sorry. Things have been sort of busy, and I got distracted by this other story I'm writing (and will be posting eventually.) Anyways, thank you for sticking around! I'm almost done with school (PRAISE MERLIN) and then I'll be updating at least once a week. I promise. Anyways, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!**

xxx

Rose stood there for a moment, staring at him like an idiot, before she remembered herself and quickly said "Want to find a table, then?"

Scorpius blinked. "Um, sure." Walking together, they made their way over to a table and set down their things, an awkward silence hanging in the air the whole time.

"I'm going to grab the special," said Scorpius. "Do you want anything?"

"Black coffee would be great, if you wouldn't mind," said Rose, reaching into her bag for some money.

"No problem."

While Scorpius headed up to the counter, Rose pulled out her laptop and her copy of Hamlet. She wasn't sure what "studying with someone" entailed, exactly. Were they supposed to talk while they worked, or just work together silently? They were going to help each other with their essays, but how? She normally preferred to work on her own, and she was starting to see why that was a much more reasonable way to do things.

She didn't have much time to think about it before Scorpius returned to the table and handed her a cup of black coffee.

"Thank you," she said, taking a long sip. The coffee was way too hot, but she didn't care- she desperately needed some caffeine. "I definitely needed this today."

"Is everything okay?" said Scorpius, his brow scrunched up in concern.

"It's my younger cousin, Louis," she explained. "He and his boyfriend have been arguing a lot lately, and he… well, things hit him pretty hard. Anyways, he came to visit us today, so we've been trying to cheer him up."

"That's really nice of you," he said, looking faintly surprised.

"What, you don't think I'm nice?" she took another sip of coffee and kept her eyes on him, eyebrows raised, not sure if she was flirting or teasing. Or was she doing both.

"No!" he said, and then blushed. "I mean, yes, I do… or... I guess I'm just surprised that you're that close with your cousins. Most people aren't."

"Ah," said Rose, nodding. "I should've guessed." She shrugged. "I have a ton of cousins, and we're all really close, so it just seems normal to us. My family is a little weird."

"Mine too, but kind of in an opposite way," he said. "We're not very close. I'd certainly never call my cousins in case of a break up." He took a sip of his drink, which had whipped cream and caramel on top. It actually looked sort of delicious.

Rose suddenly remembered that he'd found out his girlfriend was cheating on him just a few days before. Obviously, they weren't on a date. No one goes on dates days after a breakup. She mentally scolded herself.

"How are you doing, by the way?" she said, frowning.

He blinked, like he was surprised she'd remembered. "Okay, I guess." He took another sip of his drink before saying "I just wish I knew _why_, you know?"

His words brought a wave of unwelcome memories back to Rose's mind. "I know it feels like she chose someone else over you," she said, "or that there must be something better about the other person, or something, but it's not about you. It's about her."

He was quiet for a moment. "You're pretty smart," he said eventually.

"I am," she said, "but that particular piece of wisdom came from Dominique." She drank some of her coffee. "I had this boyfriend in high school who was kind of a jerk. My first boyfriend, actually. She gave me some pretty good advice."

"That really sucks," he said. "First relationship and all that."

"I'm just glad she talked sense into me," Rose said, with a shrug.

"I know what you mean. Thank god I have Serpentina for that."

"Serpen-what-a?"

He laughed. She liked his laugh. "Serpentina. My little sister. She's in her last year of high school right now, and she gives surprisingly good advice."

"Younger siblings always do seem to give annoyingly good advice," said Rose. "They're very smug about it, too."

Scorpius smiled for a moment before growing serious. "You said your cousin has a boyfriend, right?"

"Yeah," said Rose. She frowned. "If you're going to make some sort of rude comment about that-

"No," he said hastily. "I'm not. I was just wondering how his family takes it. Serpentina came out six months ago, and I'm still not sure if my parents are over it. They're kind of ridiculous."

"Oh," said Rose. She relaxed. "Sorry. His family is completely fine with it. The rest of us are, too. And Lily's bi- it's really not a big deal in our family."

Scorpius nodded.

"Sorry for attacking you," she said. "We're all a little protective of each other."

"It's completely fine," he said. "I was being nosy, anyways."

"It must be really hard for Serpentina," said Rose. "That they're like that, I mean."

"It is, I think," he said. "She doesn't let it show, though." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Anyways, we should probably get to work."

"Probably," said Rose. "So… Hamlet."

"Hamlet," he said. "Let's write some damn good essays."

xxx

As it turned out, working with Scorpius wasn't as complicated as she'd thought. They argued back and forth for a while, then madly typed out first drafts and exchanged them for proofreading. Within an hour and a half, they both had halfway decent first drafts written.

"Excellent work," said Rose. She handed Scorpius's laptop back to him.

"I'll finish it later," he said, tucking it into his bag. "I think my eyes are burning."

"Agreed."

It was quiet for a moment, but not in an awkward way. Rose always appreciated people who didn't feel the need to fill in every silence.

Scorpius glanced out the window. "I didn't notice the rain."

She hadn't either. "I love rain. More than sunny weather, actually."

"That's very gloomy and mysterious of you."

She rolled her eyes. "I just like the water falling from the sky. No symbolism here."

"You don't feel that the rain washes off all of your sins or something? It isn't tied to some significant childhood memory?"

"I hate to disappoint, but no."

"Oh well. I like snow best."

"Symbolizing your cold, hardened personality, no doubt."

"Ah, yes. That's me."

"Definitely."

"I actually just like frozen water falling from the sky."

"That's what I thought."

They smiled at each other. Rose's stomach did that irritating fluttery thing that made her feel like she was twelve.

"You know," she said, needing to say something to distract herself, "we really didn't need to come here to work. I think we forgot that we live in the same building."

Scorpius grinned. "I think we might have. I guess I'm not used to actually _knowing _my neighbors."

"In fairness, most of our neighbors are a bit too shady to befriend," said Rose. "I don't know about you, but Mrs. Figg terrifies me."

His eyes widened. "Is she the one with all the cats?"

"That's her. She's obsessed."

"Those creatures are _horrifying_," said Scorpius. "Don't get me wrong, I love cats. But hers are demented."

"Just a bit," said Rose, laughing. "Lily says Mrs. Figg is actually lovely, but I'm not sure I believe her. Lily has a habit of befriending everyone."

Scorpius laughed. "I have to ask," he said, a moment later. "Lily and Rose?"

"Ah, yes. The flower thing."

"Planned, or just a coincidence?"

"A coincidence, really," said Rose. "Mine is just because it starts with an _R_, but Lily was named after her grandmother.

"Why _R_?"

"My dad's name is Ron and my mum is Hermione," she explained. "Ron and Hermione, Rose and Hugo."

"Oh!" he said, nodding. "Got it."

"What about you?" she said. "Scorpius and Serpentina? Do they have a thing for dangerous animals?"

"I think they just have a thing for being totally pretentious," said Scorpius. "Actually, I _know _they just have a thing for being totally pretentious. It's their favorite pastime."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "I take it you all aren't on great terms?"

"Not really," he said. "It's… complicated."

She finished the last of her drink and waited, wondering if he was going to say anything else, but it seemed that the topic was closed.

"Well," she said eventually, "I guess I should be heading back."

Scorpius looked a little startled, but he nodded. "Sorry for the silence," he said. "I got a bit lost in thought there. But you're right, it's getting late."

"No problem," said Rose. "I don't mind the silence, actually. I just need to get back and check on Louis. Hopefully Dominique and Lily haven't driven him insane by now."

Scorpius stood up and slung his backpack onto his shoulders. "Mind if I walk back with you?"

She did the same, shouldering her bag before straightening up and blinking at him. "Yeah, of course. I mean, we are going to the same place."

He shrugged. "I guess. I just don't want to invade."

"You're not invading," said Rose. She grabbed their cups and dropped them in a nearby garbage can. "C'mon."

xxx

"So," said Scorpius, as they made their way down the sidewalk in the fading light, "do you ever get sick of your cousins?"

Rose thought about it for a moment. "Not really. They're my best friends. But I've told you about them already. What about your friends?"

"My mates are a bit insane," said Scorpius, shaking his head. "Do you know Matt Thomas?"

"I've seen him around," said Rose, nodding.

"Total nutter," said Scorpius. "But he's a pretty good friend. He's one of my bandmates."

"Oh, cool. What instrument?"

"He plays guitar," said Scorpius. "And then we have the twins on vocals."

"The twins?"

"Emer and Kyran Finnigan," he said. "Do you know them?"

Rose shook her head.

"I think you would get along with them pretty well," he said. "Especially Emer. She's a firecracker."

With some surprise, Rose realized that they'd already reached their apartment building. Still walking together, they headed through the doors and towards the staircase.

"I love how no one ever uses the elevator," said Scorpius, as they began the trek up the steps. "I've lived here for three months and I have yet to see anyone ride it."

"I made that mistake the day we moved in," said Rose. "Lil and I were trapped in there for half an hour with all of our suitcases and no food. It was awful."

"It must have been," said Scorpius, but his eyes were laughing.

Rose gave him a light shove on the shoulder. "Don't mock our pain. We were starving." She inhaled deeply. "Speaking of starving, I think I smell chocolate chip cookies." As they headed further up the stairs, Rose realized something. "Oh, it's probably my cousins. We were baking earlier." She glanced over at Scorpius. "Want to grab one?"

He hesitated for a second, and then shook his head. "I wouldn't want to invade. It sounds like you have a lot of family stuff going on at the moment."

"I guess so," said Rose. A minute later- she was glad he walked as quickly as she did, as she hated slow walkers-they reached the landing of the fourth floor.

"This is my stop," she said, coming to a halt.

"Thanks for the help with the essay," said Scorpius, smiling at her.

She smiled back. "It was sort of fun." A blush spread across her cheeks as she spoke. There was no doubt in her mind that she was acting completely weird, blushing about the most random things, but she didn't seem able to stop.

"It was," said Scorpius, nodding.

"Hopefully we both get an A."

"I'm sure we will," he said. "Your precision when it comes to commas is astounding."

She laughed. "Pretty much. Hey, I have an idea. Hold on just a second." Before Scorpius could protest, she turned and hurried down the hall, casting a "Stay right there!" at him over her shoulder.

When she reached the door of the apartment, she quickly unlocked it and stepped inside, heading for the kitchen.

"Rose, is that you?" Lily called from the direction of the bedroom.

"No, it's someone else who has the key to your house," Rose called back. She grabbed three cookies from the kitchen counter, wrapped them in a napkin, and headed for the door. "I'll be back in just a second." Before the others could say anything, she hurried back down the hallway, where Scorpius was leaning against the wall, waiting.

"Here," she said, pressing the small bundle into his hands.

His eyes lit up. "Thanks!"

"No problem," she said. "They baked enough to feed an army. I really would invite you in, but then Dominique would talk your ear off and not let you leave for three hours."

"No problem," he said. A second later, he blushed, probably realizing that he'd echoed her. "But, um, thank you again for the cookies."

"No problem," said Rose, raising her eyebrows at him. "Like I said before."

"I'm going to leave before you keep making fun of me," he said, blushing a bit more. It was adorable. Everything he did was adorable. His face was adorable. Rose really liked his face. She shoved the thoughts aside before _she _could start blushing.

"See you tomorrow!" she said, turning and heading down the hallway. A second later, she silently cursed herself. Why did she have to _assume _that she would just see him the next day?

"Let me know if you want a ride!" Scorpius called after her.

She turned back towards him, surprise flickering across her face. "Really?"

"Sure," he said, arching his eyebrows in an almost-mocking expression. "No problem."

And with that, he vanished up the stairwell.

Rose stayed where she was for a moment, laughing silently, and then she turned and headed down the hallway towards her apartment. As hard as she tried, she didn't seem able to wipe the stupid smile from her face. She knew her cousins were going to tease her to death because of that smile.

She didn't particularly care.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: WOOHOO, IT'S CHAPTER SIX. I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to review! (More notes at the end of the chapter.) **

**xxx**

"Students, listen up."

Rose straightened up in her seat and turned her attention to Professor McGonagall. A thin woman with a tight gray bun and glasses, she was considered a sort of goddess among the film majors, Rose included. Before McGonagall had arrived at Evington College to bestow her knowledge and glory upon wannabe-filmakers, she'd spent years actually _making _movies, one or two of which opened at prestigious film festivals.

In short, they all worshipped the ground she walked on, and when she gave instructions, they obeyed.

"Let's get straight to the point," said McGonagall. "It's March. The semester ends in May. That means we have three months left of class, meaning it's time for you to start working on your final project."

A few students began to whisper to one another, but they stopped the moment they noticed McGonagall's glare.

"I'm sure you're all expecting some sort of specific assignment," said the professor, scanning the room with a scrutinizing expression. "_Create a film with an emphasis on self-discovery, _perhaps, or maybe something about a _journey_."

The classroom was very quiet.

"But in actuality, I don't care what your film is about," said McGonagall. "Your project is simple. You have three months in which to create a twenty to thirty minute film that is worth watching." She scanned the room, her eyes piercing. "Some of you will fail. Most of you will struggle. Struggling is fine. Failing is not. Good luck. Class dismissed."

And that was that.

Relieved to be finished with her last class of the day, Rose stood up, yawned, and collected her things. It was Friday, and her mind had been wandering all day, making plans for what she was going to do over the weekend. _Eat, binge-watch Sense8 on Netflix, _and _lie in bed doing nothing _were all pretty high on her list. However, the moment Professor McGonagall mentioned the end-of-the-year-project, she forgot all about Netflix and food. Well, she _mostly _forgot about Netflix and food.

The final project would be a huge part of her grade, but more than that, it would test her mettle as a filmmaker. Pleasing friends and family with the short sketches she'd been making since the age of eleven was one thing, but pleasing Professor McGonagall was something else entirely. In order to make it as a professional filmmaker, Rose would have to please hundreds of people, many of them just as critical as her professor, or maybe even more so.

In short, her project needed to be good. _Really _good.

But figuring out what she wanted to do for her film wasn't exactly going to be easy. Something funny? Something serious? A documentary? An epic fantasy condensed into thirty minutes? Her mind buzzed with ideas as she made her way out of the building and across the courtyard. She barely noticed as Dominique hurried over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"So when are you going to introduce me to Hot Neighbor?" she said, by way of greeting.

Rose, still lost in her filmmaking reverie, flinched with surprise. "Is there some particular reason you never say hello like a normal person?"

"I'm just too fabulous for standard greetings," said Dominique. "So, Hot Neighbor?"

Rose groaned. In the four days following her essay-writing-session with Scorpius, her cousins had been absolutely relentless in their interrogations about him. The fact that he'd driven her to school on Wednesday had just made things several thousand times worse.

"Please stop," said Rose. "I need _at least _an hour of blissful Friday relaxation before I can deal with this conversation again."

"But he's right over there and I want to meet him!"

Rose blinked. "Wait, what?"

Dominique grinned at her. "Do you know that you actually get more alert when someone mentions his name?"

"I do not!"

"You do. You kind of stumble around in a dazed stupor all the time and then someone mentions Hot Neighbor and your ears perk up."

Rose elbowed her in the side. "This is college. We're all stumbling around in dazed stupors."

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to go say hi." Before Rose could formulate a response to this, Dominique was already heading across the courtyard, moving with remarkable speed, considering the height and wobbliness of her spiky high-heeled shoes. Sure enough, as Rose scanned the courtyard, she spotted Scorpius, standing under an oak tree and having a very animated conversation with two redheaded people. Dominique was headed straight towards them.

Deciding that she should intervene before Dominique could make some sort of comment about Rose and Scorpius making out, as she'd been doing all week (or, worse, start making out with him herself, as Dominique occasionally did that with very little warning) Rose hurried after her cousin.

By the time she reached the group, Dominique was already in the middle of introductions.

"You must be our very attractive upstairs neighbor," she said, with a smile that could only be described as _devilish. _"I'm Dominique, the most attractive person in our building. Don't worry, though, you're a close second." She somehow managed to make the conversation seem completely casual, as though she'd bumped into Scorpius at a lovely tea party, rather than chasing him down like an extremely fashionable federal agent tracking an escaped prisoner.

"Um," said Scorpius, who somehow managed to look even more adorable when he was confused. (_Damn him_.) Sudden recognition flashed across his features. "Oh! Dominique! You're Rose's cousin, right?"

"That I am," said Dominique. "You can consider me Rosie 2.0, the older and more glamorous edition, although please don't consider that an excuse to hit on me. If your redheaded friend wants to hit on me, though, I would be delighted to comply."

"Which redheaded friend?" said one of the redheads, a girl with a cute pixie cut and a nose ring.

Dominique gave the girl and the boy standing next to her, who had longer hair with a few braids woven in, an approving once-over. "Either, to be honest." She turned back to Scorpius. "But yes, I am our beloved Rosie's cousin."

"More's the pity," said Rose, reaching the rest of them. She nudged Dominique in the side. "Having Dominique around is equivalent to having three younger siblings and one really energetic hamster."

"I resent that statement," said Dominique. "I'm way cuter than any hamster."

Everyone laughed.

"You must be Rose," said the girl with the pixie cut. Rose nodded.

"Cool," said the redheaded boy. "I'm Kyran, and this is my sister Emer."

"My bandmates," said Scorpius, smiling at Rose. "I told you about them, right?"

She nodded and smiled at the twins. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too!" said Emer, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "You've got to come out with us some time so I can tell you lots of embarrassing stories about Scorpius. You too, Dominique."

"What did I miss?" said a voice. A boy with dark skin and dreadlocks stepped up to the group and flung his arm across Scorpius's shoulders. "Who are these lovely ladies?"

"Stop being gross, Matt, you'll scare them off," said Emer, kicking him in the shin. He yelped.

"Rose, Dominique, this is Matt Thomas, guitarist of the Ugly Gremlins," said Kyran. "Matt, this is Scorpius's friend Rose and Rose's friend Dominique."

"Cousin, actually," said Rose.

"You play guitar?" said Dominique. "Hot. But what the hell is this _Ugly Gremlins _thing?"

"Our band name," said Emer, rolling her eyes. "Don't ask."

"Our band name is awesome," said Kyran. "Gives off this total punk fantasy vibe, don't you think?"

"Did you just say _punk fantasy vibe_?" said Emer. "God, I'm starting to remember why I pretended we weren't related for all of first grade."

"How did you manage that?" said Rose. "I mean, you're almost identical."

"I convinced everyone in our class that he was adopted and just dyed his hair to fit in," said Emer, with a shrug.

"Okay, you know I love all the stories about your ridiculous childhood," said Matt, "but why did Emer just send me an SOS text?"

"Oh!" said Emer, her eyes lighting up. "Oh my god, I totally forgot. You guys are not going to believe where I got us a gig tonight."

"A gig?" said Kyran, green eyes widening. "Where?"

Emer took a deep breath. "Electric Emerald."

Dominique was the first to react. "Electric Emerald? Are you kidding?"

Emer shook her head, causing her long silver earrings to jingle noisily. "Nope."

Her bandmates were still staring at her with expressions of shock.

"For real?" said Matt. "This isn't a joke?"

"Not a joke," said Emer. "One of the bands they had slotted for tonight cancelled and my friend Mya got us as a replacement."

"What's Electric Emerald?" said Rose.

"Awesome club," said Dominique. "They always have music on Friday nights."

"Did you just say _tonight_?" said Scorpius, staring at Emer with an expression of horror. "As in tonight? As in four hours from now?"

"Three, actually," said Emer, who was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. "Three hours."

Kyran's eyes widened. "_Three_? Emer-

"Okay," said Scorpius, before Kyran could say anything else. "We can do this. Don't freak out, anyone. We just need to grab all of our stuff from my apartment and then head over there to check out the stage and get ready."

"We don't have anyone on keys!" said Emer suddenly. "Shit."

"Scor, you really should have chosen a more convenient time to break up with Jessica," said Matt, shaking his head. "I mean, I get that she was a terrible girlfriend and all, but at least she could play."

"You shut your mouth before I knock your teeth out," said Emer, glaring at him. "As the founder of the anti-Jessica League I resent any suggestion that Scorpius should speak to her ever again."

"Guys, please relax," said Scorpius, closing his eyes."I can't handle this conversation right now, okay? We'll be fine without anyone on keys. Now let's go get our-

"Hold on a second," said Dominique. "Who does what in this band of yours?"

"Twins on vocals, Scorpius on drums, me on guitar," said Matt, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. "Jessica usually played the keyboard, and then we used to have Jia do this weird electric violin thing that was totally awesome, but she graduated last year."

"_Shit_," said Kyran. "We're also going to have to set up the sound equipment without Jessica."

"Rose can do that," said Dominique.

"Say what now?" said Rose, blinking.

Dominique pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her skinny jeans, fingers flying across the screen as she typed in a text message. When she was finished, she shoved it back into her pocket and stretched her hand out towards Scorpius.

"Give me your room keys," she said. "Kyran and Matt are coming with me. We'll meet you at the club with all of your equipment. I need them for the heavy lifting. Emer, Scorpius, Rose, you stay here. I just texted Lily, she'll be over in fifteen minutes."

"Lily?" said Rose.

"She's going to play the keyboard," said Dominique authoritatively. "Emer, your job is to come up with a band name that doesn't completely suck. Scorpius, you need to put together some sort of setlist and fill Lily in once she gets here."

Scorpius dug through his bag and handed Dominique the keys to his apartment. "Got it."

"Good," said Dominique. "I'll meet you at the club in an hour."

"Hold on a second," said Scorpius. "What about Rose?"

Dominique grinned. "Rose, you're going to handle the setup and general management of the sound equipment."

"You can do sound?" said Emer.

A slow smile spread across Rose's face. "I'm a film major. I can do sound."

"Of course she can," said Dominique. "Now let's move, people! As your official stage manager, I refuse to let you mess up this opportunity."

"Official stage manager?" said Scorpius, raising his eyebrows.

"Just roll with it, Ugly Gremlins," said Rose, grinning. "Let's get started. We've got a lot to get done in the next three hours."

**xxx**

**AN: Is the College AU turning into a Band AU? Possibly. Is the Band AU then going to turn into a Movie-making AU? Probably.  
Also, EXCITING NEWS. I'm participating in the Long Haul V Competition (over on HPFC forum) which basically means I have to post a chapter of this story once a week until it's finished. So that's good.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading, and don't forget to let me know what you thought of it!**

**xxx**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Chapter 7 is here! It's a bit of a filler chapter, but at least I updated. Also, shout out to the guest reader who reviewed every single chapter of the story- you're amazing and I love you. Also, thank you to my sister for giving me the band name. Ily.**

**Thanks for reading, everyone!**

**xxx**

"We're going to die," said Emer. She was staring down at a crumpled piece of notebook paper, an expression of total horror on her face. "These are all awful and we're all going to die."

"Stress is the enemy of actually getting shit done," said Rose, without looking up from the screen of Scorpius's laptop. Next to her, Scorpius laughed.

Emer tossed the piece of notebook paper onto the floor. "It's official. Naming bands sucks."

Before Rose could say anything else, the door of Emer's dorm room flew open and Lily breezed in. "'Sup, my homies?"

"Lily," said Rose, "if you ever say the word homies in my presence again, I will literally murder you."

"I think you'll figuratively murder her, actually," said Scorpius, grinning at her. She punched him on the shoulder.

"Oh my god, he's cute and he's a nerd," said Lily. "Keep him. Besides, Rose, I'm trying to fit in with all the cool college kids. They're scary."

"You're still in high school?" said Emer.

"Nah, I dropped out," said Lily. "I'm an intern at Le Reaux perfume company." She pulled out a chair and dropped into it, edging up to Scorpius's left and peering at the computer screen. "What're we doing?"

"Putting together a playlist and trying to come up with a band name," said Rose.

"What about Coldplay?" said Lily, pointing at the computer screen. "Do you guys know any Coldplay? Everyone loves Coldplay."

"Viva la Vida and Fix You," said Scorpius. "And Yellow, but Matt hates that one."

"Okay, put Fix You in there towards the bottom of the list," said Lily. "There should always be a slow song towards the end of the night so people can sway and make out and stuff. Trust me."

"Fair enough," said Scorpius. He added it to the list and pushed the laptop towards her. "How does this look?"

"Ooh, Style," said Lily. "That's going to be awesome. And Eyes Open? Someone must really like Taylor Swift."

"That would be Kyran," said Emer.

"Excellent," said Lily. "I approve. Okay, I think this looks pretty good. Actually, wait. Switch Somebody That I Used to Know with Fight Song and then you're good."

Scorpius's fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Now," said Lily, "I hear I'm playing keyboard, right?"

While Lily and Scorpius plunged straight into a conversation about the keyboard, sheet music, F-sharps, and a whole bunch of musical stuff that went straight over Rose's head, she stood up and moved over to Emer.

"How's it going?"

"Is the initials thing too cliche?" said Emer. "Like, that thing where you take the names of the band members and use their initials to spell out the band name? We have E, K, M, and S."

"Kems? Meks?" said Rose. "I don't know…"

"Not exactly what we're going for," said Emer. She hid her head in her hands. "Ugh. If I'd know that bands would be this difficult, I probably would have taken up a different occupation, like lying on the floor and screaming like a banshee. That's a profession, right?"

Rose laughed. "Oh, come on. You'll be fine. We still have… what, two hours and fifteen minutes before you have to have it all figured out."

"You know," said Lily, looking up from the sheet music she and Scorpius were looking through, "Banshee isn't a terrible band name."

"This is true," said Rose thoughtfully. "Banshee is not an awful band name."

"It's not horrible," said Scorpius, "and that's an improvement for us."

There was a long pause as they all waited for Emer's opinion. She tilted her head to the side, considering, and then looked at Scorpius.

"Banshee?" she said.

"Banshee."

A slow grin spread across her face. "Banshee it is."

"Brilliant," said Lily. "So you have a name, a setlist, and a keyboard player. What more could you possibly want from life?"

"An extra week or so to practice and make sure our equipment is working properly?" said Emer, the euphoria of finding a name already vanishing from her features.

"Em," said Scorpius. "Calm."

"You're going to be fine," said Lily.

Emer nodded, lips pressed together in a tight line. "Of course. We're going to be totally, 100% fine. I'm not panicking. Are you panicking? No one panic. Panic is bad. Shit, I'm totally panicking. Shit. Shit."

Rose glanced over at Scorpius, who mouthed Tell you later before dropping into the seat next to Emer and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Look," he said, "we've got it under control. Banshee is going to be epic tonight. I mean, come on. We've got you."

Emer laughed shakily and rested her head on his shoulder. Rose smiled. The bond they shared was clearly so important to both of them, and though she did wonder if it was anything other than platonic, she made herself push those thoughts aside. Not your place to wonder, Rose, she told herself, doing her best to make her inner voice sound firm. Not your place at all.

"Come on, guys," said Lily, clapping her hands together to get their attention. "Emer and I need to get ready for this gig." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tube of eyeliner. "We need to look extremely badass. You two, out in the hallway."

"Because we totally need to leave for you to apply eyeliner," said Rose, narrowing her eyes at Lily, but she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Scorpius followed her, closing the door behind them. It was quiet for a moment before Rose spoke.

"So," she said. "Hopefully Lily isn't completely hitting on Emer."

Scorpius laughed. "I sort of thought that Dominique was hitting on her earlier, actually."

"Oh, she probably was," said Rose. "But Domi is almost always hitting on someone. She'll probably do it to you at some point, too."

"I'll be careful to watch out for that."

"So," she said, somewhat hesitantly. "Is… is Emer okay?"

"Oh, right," said Scorpius. "You're probably wondering about that whole thing."

"Yeah, but you don't have to tell me," said Rose, shrugging. "I'm sort of nosy sometimes."

"Nah, I don't mind," said Scorpius. "It's not a big secret or anything like that. It's just… Like I told you before, I'm not trying to make a career out of being a musician. Emer is. She has a seriously amazing voice- you'll see later- but the music industry is really hard to get into, so she takes everything pretty seriously. I think she's kind of freaked out that we have an actual gig."

"Oh," said Rose, nodding. "Got it." She could relate. The film industry wasn't exactly the easiest to break into, either.

"Yeah," said Scorpius. "She's calm about pretty much everything else on the planet, but not this. I just hope I managed to calm her down a bit."

"I think you did," said Rose. She realized with a jolt that they were standing with very little space between them: their shoulders were pressed against the door of Emer's room, heads tilted towards each other. It was the sort of moment that feels still and breathless, the sort of moment that comes right before something important happens.

Her breath caught in her throat as they both moved a little bit closer, their eyes latching together. She felt words trembling at the edge of her lips, but nothing came out. Saying anything would have ruined the moment.

She was suddenly certain that he was going to kiss her.

Then door of Emer's dorm room flew inwards.

Rose toppled backwards and just barely managed to catch herself on the door frame. She pulled herself up as quickly as possible, hoping that the awkwardness she was feeling wasn't completely visible on her face.

"We're badass, we're fabulous, and we're ready to go!" sang Lily. Emer appeared behind her, smiling a little. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a v-necked shirt made from dark, forest-green silk, as well as sparkly gold eye makeup and tiny golden hoop earrings, which Rose recognized as Lily's.

"Let's get this show on the road!" said Lily.

"Good idea," said Rose, smiling brightly. "Wouldn't want you guys to be late!" She was careful not to look at Scorpius, certain that the awkwardness would overwhelm her if she did. She couldn't believe she'd almost kissed him. She couldn't believe he'd almost kissed her.

"Get ready, world!" said Lily, her voice rising to an excited shout. "Banshee is coming!"


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Hello, lovelies! A huge thank you to all of the people who left lovely reviews on the last chapter. You were all so nice and excited about the story, so I figured you deserved a fast update ;) Oh, and also: if you're one of those people who likes to listen to music while reading, I would recommend the band Oh Honey. Basically all of their songs remind me of Rose and Scorpius, especially "It Can't Rain Forever" "Until You Let Me" "Lonely Neighbor" "Sugar You" and "Be Okay."**

**Enjoy this absurdly fluffy chapter!**

**xxx**

By the time Rose and the others reached Electric Emerald, Dominique, Kyran, and Matt were sitting in front of the club. Kyran and Matt were arguing over something and Dominique was laughing at them, her legs stretched out in front of her. There was a cigarette in her mouth.

Emer went straight for Dominique and yanked away the cigarette, dropping it onto the pavement and crushing it under her boot.

"Hey!" said Dominique, blinking up at her. "Damn, you look hot."

"Please don't smoke," said Emer sincerely. "It will seriously ruin your teeth. Also your lungs. And your internal organs."

Kyran stood up and wrapped his arm around his sister's waist, pulling her into a hug. "Emer. Chill."

"It's bad for your health," Emer said.. "And the health of everyone around you. Secondhand smoke is a thing, you know. Also, it's really hard to quit. Do you really want to be forty years old and still ducking outside every few hours to smoke a cigarette? Seriously, it's also bad for children. It's really not nice when you have to go to second grade smelling like smoke every day."

"Em," said Kyran, taking her hands and squeezing them. "Rambling again. Also totally mouthing off on a girl you met, like, an hour ago."

"Right," said Emer. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths before turning to Dominique. "I'm really sorry. I freak out before gigs. And ramble a lot. Just ignore it." She took another deep breath and turned back towards the others. "What were we talking about?"

Rose had a suspicion that there was something more to Emer's smoking rant than just nervousness, but she decided not to question it.

"Okay," she said, tucking her hair behind her ears, "we should probably get you all inside, right? Did you bring in the equipment already?"

"Yeah," said Dominique, getting to her feet and brushing off the front of her shirt. "We didn't set it up, though. That's your responsibility, Rosiekins."

"Rosiekins?" said Scorpius, grinning.

Rose pointed at him and Dominique, doing her best to look stern. "You are _not _calling me Rosiekins."

"Mean," said Scorpius.

"Whatever you say, Rosalinda," said Lily.

"Dear god, there's no escape," said Rose. "I'm going inside before you can come up with any other horrible nicknames for me." She opened the door of the club and ducked inside. The others, still laughing, followed her in.

It was immediately clear that Electric Emerald wasn't quite ready for the night to begin just yet, and it was strange to see a club in the light of day, without the crowds and flashing lights. Without the crowd of drunk people dancing and making out, the place mostly looked like a bar with an extra-large dance floor. It was a bit depressing.

"You guys are going on first?" said Rose, turning in a slow circle, taking in the room. Her eyes fastened on the stage, where the sound equipment was sitting, ready to be hooked up and turned on.

"Yup," said Scorpius.

"Okay," she said. "Sounds good. I'm going to go take care of all that." She waved in the direction of the stage.

"Excellent," said Dominique. "I'm going to find whoever's working here and tell them you're setting up. Hey, did you come up with a band name?"

Leaving the others to exclaim, again, over the awesomeness of the name _Banshee, _Rose headed over the stage and got started. She got a surprising amount of joy from the familiar work: setting up mics, making sure none of the cables were tangled, testing everything to make sure it was all working properly. Fifteen minutes later, she was satisfied that she had everything running and ready to go.

She headed back over to the others, who were in the middle of a conversation with an Indian woman, her dark hair braided over one shoulder. She looked just a few years older than they were.

"Rose, this is Lakshmi Patil," said Scorpius. "Lakshmi, this is Rose."

"Sound girl extraordinaire," said Lily.

"Nice to meet you all!" said Lakshmi. "You don't go on for a while yet, since we're not officially open for another hour. But I can make you a drink, if you want." She tilted her head to the side. "Actually, on second thought, are any of you legal?"

"Dominique is," said Lily.

"Want something?" said Lakshmi, turning to Dominique.

Domi seemed to consider it for a moment before shaking her head. "Nah. I'm good."

"You sure?" said Lakshmi.

"Yeah. Maybe later."

Lily and Rose traded a glance. It wasn't exactly like Dominique to turn down a drink. Or, for that matter, to listen when someone told her to put out a cigarette. Dominique's general life policy was "Do whatever it is people tell you not to do" which generally worked pretty well or not at all.

"Well, I suppose I should applaud your abstinence," said Lakshmi. "Come on, I'll get you all some soda or something."

The group followed her over to the bar and sat down. Rose attempted to sit between Lily and Emer, but somehow wound up directly to Scorpius's right.

_This is why I avoid boys, _she thought, taking a gulp of soda. _They're much too confusing. I mean, really. How are you supposed to react when someone _almost _kisses you? Actually kissing someone is a totally different situation from almost-kissing. When you _actually _kiss someone, at least you know where you stand._

Scorpius nudged her in the side. "You okay? You seem a little quiet."

She made herself look over at him. If he was feeling the same awkwardness she was, it wasn't at all evident on his face- which was actually very annoying. Had she just imagined the moment in the hallway? Was she becoming completely delusional?

"Yeah," she said, trying her best to look normal. "I'm fine." He didn't look convinced, so she said "I'm just thinking about my end-of-the-year film project."

"Oh, cool!" said Scorpius. "What's the assignment?"

"Basically, I have to make a movie that doesn't suck," said Rose. "Twenty to thirty minutes long." She grinned. "It just has to satisfy McGonagall."

"Oh boy," he said. "I've heard a few stories about her. Do you have any idea what you want to do for your project?"

"Not just yet," she said. "I have a lot of ideas, but nothing solid. I usually do lighthearted things, but I'm thinking of trying something more serious this time." She shrugged.

"I'm sure it will be awesome, whatever it is you end up doing," he said. "And if you need an actress, feel free to borrow Serpentina."

Rose laughed. "She likes acting?"

"She's a bit obsessed," said Scorpius. "And she has a flair for the dramatic. If you ever meet her, you'll see what I mean."

"I'd like to," said Rose. "She sounds pretty cool."

"She's actually coming to visit me in a week or two," said Scorpius, smiling.

Lily leaned over Kyran so she could speak to them. "What's this I hear? Who's visiting?"

"My younger sister, Serpentina," said Scorpius. "She's thinking of coming for a visit in a week or two."

"Awesome," said Lily. "We're totally having a party to celebrate."

"Watch out," said Rose, nudging Scorpius's shoulder. "Lily in party mode is _lethal_."

He laughed. "I'll look forward to it."

And just like that, the awkwardness was gone.

By the time Banshee was slated to begin playing, Electric Emerald looked very different. It wasn't packed, but there was a fairly good crowd, and most of the light was coming from a number of jade-green light fixtures, which gave the whole place a strange glow.

"You guys ready?" said Rose. The band members, along with Lily, Rose, and Dominique, were standing in a huddle to the left of the stage.

"Hell yeah!" said Matt.

"So ready," said Lily. "Born ready."

"Definitely," said Scorpius.

"We got this," said Kyran.

"I'm going to die," said Emer.

"Oh, you hush," said Dominique. She grabbed Emer's hand and lifted it into the air. "You have to be proud! Confident! Determined! You've totally got this."

"Deep breaths," said Kyran, patting his sister on the shoulder. "Very deep breaths. Maybe a bit of yoga."

Before they could say anything else, Lakshmi's voice cut in over the speakers.

"Hello, everyone! How's it going?"

There was the general chorus of shouts and cheers. Rose felt a flutter of anxiety. She hoped the crowd would like _Banshee. _

"Glad to hear it," said Lakshmi. "Well, I have a special treat for you all today. We have an awesome new band here at Electric Emerald tonight, and they're all very excited to play for you, so please give a warm welcome to _Banshee_!"

As the band members exchanged excited glances and headed onto the stage, Dominique grabbed Rose's arm and tugged her into the crowd. They both clapped and cheered as loudly as they could, cheering on for their friends.

Without any further introduction, they jumped straight into the first number, a cover of _Fight Song _by Rachel Platten. There were a few seconds where it was just Matt on the guitar and Lily on the keyboard, and then Emer stepped up to the microphone and started to sing.

"_Like a small boat on the ocean, sending big waves into motion…_"

A smile lit up Rose's face. Scorpius's statement was absolutely correct: Emer's voice was amazing. It was hard to believe that something that powerful could come from someone so small. With Kyran's voice on backing vocals, _Banshee _was definitely playing the song to perfection.

There was a single beat of silence after the last note of the song, and then applause. Grinning, Matt stepped up to the microphone and introduced all of the band members.

"The twins, Emer and Kyran Finnigan, on vocals!" he announced, gesturing at them. "Lily Potter on keyboard! Scorpius Malfoy on drums!"

Scorpius waved at the crowd. When his eyes met Rose's, she gave him a thumbs up, and a smile spread across his face.

His face was always surprisingly open, she thought. All emotions seemed to show on it easily,and at the moment, his happiness was ridiculously evident. No matter what he said, Rose could tell that music was important to him.

She kind of loved it.

She kind of wanted to kiss him.

As the night went on, the club become more and more crowded, which seemed to give the band even more energy. By the time they got to _Style, _one of Rose's favorite songs, she and Dominique were dancing like crazy. Though Rose wouldn't ever really admit it, she loved dancing. Not choreographed dancing- she wasn't nearly coordinated enough for that- but dancing on her own, with reckless abandon and wild energy.

At the end of the song, she and Dominique collapsed into each other, laughing.

"I'm going to go get a drink!" said Dominique, shouting over the noise of the club. Rose nodded and found a wall to lean against, keeping her eyes on the stage as Kyran stepped up to the mic.

"And now we have something special for you!" he announced. "Our drummer here, Scorpius, is going to take over the microphone and sing a little something."

Rose blinked. She was almost certain Scorpius had told her that he didn't sing. Apparently she was wrong, though, because as she watched, he stepped up to the microphone and adjusted it slightly. Matt stood next to him, guitar strap stretched across his shoulders.

"Hi," Scorpius said into the microphone, and Rose couldn't stop her mouth from tugging itself into a smile.

"So," he said, "I'm not normally a singer. I'm not half as good as Emer over there, or Kyran, but this is one of my favorite songs, and I thought you all might like to hear it." He smiled. "This is _Take All the Time You Need _by Oh Honey."

And then he started to sing.

It was immediately clear, both to her and to everyone else in the audience, that Scorpius was wrong. His voice was different from Emer's, softer and warmer and a little bit less cultured, but it was just as good, and perfect for the song.

"_You've eyes as honest as the skies_," he sang, and Rose could almost see the couples in the club moving closer to one another, melting into each other. It was that sort of song, the kind that pulls people together.

"_We're a knot they can't undo_," the song continued. Scorpius's eyes flickered across the crowd, and then they found Rose. An electric hum ran through her body.

"_Oh my darling, take all the time you need_," he sang, the smile on his face growing wider and wider. "_There ain't no place I'd rather be. Oh my darling, take all the time you need_."

And Rose felt herself melting.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: OH. MY. GOD. It's been so long and I'm sososososo sorry. I got a bit distracted by other things. Anyways, I'm back now! Also, two announcements: first, I created a Tumblr for this story in particular and Scorose in general. You can find me on Tumblr at ****_scorosequeen. _****Please feel free to send me questions or feedback about the story, or to scold me when I go to long without updating. Second, I am seeking an accountability buddy for this story. And by "accountability buddy", I mean someone who will message me every couple of days and be all "HOW MUCH DID YOU WRITE TODAY? HOW MANY WORDS? YOU WROTE NOTHING? SHAME ON YOU! GO WRITE!" If you're interested in being that person, hit me up. ( My sister: No, you don't count. You bother me about this story enough.)**

**Okay, that's all for today. I'll let you read now. Thank you for sticking with me even though I suck at updating! **

**XoXoX**

By the time _Banshee _was done playing, it was clear that they'd earned themselves several new fans. The Electric Emerald crowd, buzzed off of alcohol and dancing, cheered loudly at the end of the last song, then shouted with protest when Kyran announced that it was time to go. Beaming, the band played two more songs before finally wrapping it up.

"Oh my god," said Lily, as she made her way over to Rose and collapsed against her. "That was so much fun. I'm completely exhausted and I also want to run a marathon and kick someone in the face."

"You're suffering from the aftershock of the band-performing adrenaline rush," said Scorpius, appearing behind her. "It's a very serious problem." His blond hair was tousled and he was sweaty, but his eyes were bright and happy. It was adorable. Everything about him was adorable. Rose really needed to get a grip.

Lily laughed. "I'm going to go call Louis and tell him about this. He could use a good story to cheer him up."

"That's why she's the good cousin," said Rose, watching as Lily walked away, presumably seeking somewhere quiet where she could make her phone call in peace. Rose never called Louis, or any of her cousins. She never even called her mother (which didn't prevent her mum from calling her at least twice a week.) It wasn't because she didn't love them- she just really hated talking on the phone.

Scorpius shook his head. "You're all good cousins. If you were _normal _cousins, you would communicate only through glares and throw pasta at each other's heads. At least, according to Emer and Kyran."

"Big Irish family," Kyran explained, coming up next to them. "Sometimes tossing a handful of spaghetti into someone's face is the only way you can get them to pay attention to you."

"We're not talking about Christmas _again_, are we?" said Emer, right behind him. "Because that was _one time _and if you had to share a bedroom with Gabby you'd throw pasta at her face, too." She adjusted the placement of her silver nose ring with the touch of a finger.

"You threw pasta at someone's face?" said Dominique, looking impressed.

"One time!"

"I'll have to try that on Rose the next time she's being annoying," said Dominique, elbowing Rose in the ribcage.

"Ouch!" said Rose. "I'll have to try it on _you _the next time you decide to stab me with your bony elbows."

Kyran said something else, and then the rest of them jumped into a discussion about which type of pasta would make the best ammunition. Rose took advantage of their laughter and distraction to study them the way she would study a scene in a movie.

There was Dominique, as familiar to Rose as anyone in the world could be. Her short blonde hair was parted on the far left and half-falling into her eyes, and as Rose watched, she pushed it back with an impatient gesture, the silver rings on her fingers glittering in the colorful lights of the club. Every one of her movements, from the pushing of the hair to the way she threw her head back as she laughed, spoke of confidence and ease. Even a complete stranger would have been able to see her complete confidence in herself.

Next to Domi stood Emer, with her pixie cut and green eyes. She was a strange mix, thought Rose, equal parts daring and uncertain, a mixture of confidence and nervousness. She looked at her friends in a protective sort of way, but there was a certain fragility about her, too, like she was also in need of protection.

Kyran and Matt she didn't have a good enough read on yet, as she'd hardly spoken to either of them, but she thought that she liked them- Kyran with his easy stance and teasing manner, Matt flirting with every girl in sight.

And then there was Scorpius.

When she thought about it, she didn't know him terribly well either. And yet, despite this, she thought she had a pretty good read on him, too. The way he rested his hand lightly on Emer's shoulder when he spoke to her, his laughter as he talked to his friends, the way every single emotion showed on his face, the ease with which he spoke to strangers- everything about him was open and friendly and kind.

Rose really couldn't deny it. She liked him. A lot. She liked the sound of his laughter and the color of his eyes and his singing voice.

So why, exactly, did the idea of _acting_ on those feelings freak her out so much? Why was studying together fine, but going on a date sounded like an impossible challenge? She wasn't sure. It didn't make sense. After all, Rose had had boyfriends before. Three of them, as a matter of fact. But not for several years, despite Dominique and Lily's persistent attempts at matchmaking. Sure, she'd had crushes, but never any that she had actually acted on.

Maybe, she thought, she was just a bit too cynical. Maybe observing her cousin's love lives ruined her for having one of her own. Maybe somewhere along the way, between Dominique's hook-ups and Al's disastrous dates and Teddy and Victoire's arguments, she'd decided that romance wasn't worth the bother.

And maybe that was why she find the idea of her and Scorpius being _a thing _both elating and nerve-wracking. He was just so _nice. _And Rose felt that, fundamentally, she wasn't a _nice _person. She was snarky and irritable and she slammed doors whenever she was annoyed by something. She wasn't made for relationships. She'd never really been in a good one. And she was afraid that Scorpius wouldn't like her very much once he actually got to know her.

Before she could dwell too much on that new and unpleasant realization, she noticed that the group around her was strangely silent. She blinked, emerging from her confused muddle of thoughts, and saw that someone else had joined them, a girl with shoulder-length brown hair. Though she was standing on the edge of the circle, with Kyran and Matt on either side of her, the girl had eyes for just one person.

Scorpius.

"I'm sorry for just showing up like this, Scor," the girl was saying. "I know I shouldn't have come without telling you."

"Damn right, Jessica, you shouldn't have," snapped Emer. "Get the hell out of here." She folded her arms across her chest and shot the brunette girl a look of pure poison.

_Jessica. _So this had to be the ex-girlfriend. The one who'd cheated on Scorpius for months before admitting it and breaking up with him.

Rose had imagined Jessica as someone wild and a bit crazy, someone who would speak loudly and get drunk and have lots of ear piercings, someone a bit more like Dominique. (Though Dominique had a strict no-cheating policy.) She'd thought that once Jessica was finished breaking Scorpius's heart, she would have moved on to someone else and completely forgotten about Scorpius.

But Jessica was none of those things.

In fact, she was one of the most well-put-together people Rose had ever seen. Her hair was straight and smooth, not at all frizzy or out of place. Her silver earrings matched a pendant that hung from her neck, and her bright red lipstick was not even a tiny bit smeared. And yet she still managed to avoid looking out of the place in the club.

"Jess?" said Scorpius, blinking at her. He seemed a little dazed. "What are you doing here?"

"You know what?" said Kyran. "Scorpius, I think we should go get you a drink."

"Great idea," said Emer, who was still glaring. "Maybe while you're doing that, Jessica can walk out to her car, drive away, and never speak to Scorpius again, ever."

Jessica ignored them both. "Look, Scor, I just really wanted to see you play tonight. You know how much I love your singing and your band. And I just wanted to make things up to you. All of it. I was awful, and I'm sorry, and I miss you. You're an amazing person and I can't stand the idea of never speaking to you again."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before cheated on him," said Emer. Rose couldn't believe that Jessica had the nerve to stand there without flinching while Emer looked at her with that amount of rage.

"Em," said Scorpius. He reached over and rested his hand on her arm, but his eyes stayed on Jessica. "You don't have to handle this for me, okay?"

"Scorpius, you can't possibly think-"

Emer broke off in the middle of her sentence as Kyran pulled her away from the others and began speaking to her in a low voice. Rose watched them for a moment, then turned her attention back to Jessica and Scorpius. The tension between them was intensely visible.

"Scorpius," said Jessica. "I know what I did was horrible."

"Yeah," said Scorpius, addressing her for the first time. "It was."

Jessica flinched. Clearly, this wasn't exactly the reaction she'd been expecting. Rose found herself wondering how many times the two of them had done this, how many times Jessica had stood in front of Scorpius looking beautiful and apologetic, knowing that he would forgive her and let her back into his life.

"I made a really bad choice," Jessica said, shifting her weight slightly, as though she was trying to regain her balance in the conversation. "I know that, and I'm so, so sorry."

Scorpius pressed his hands against his temples, fingertips tangling in his curly hair. "Jessica, what do you want from me?" His voice didn't sound angry or even resentful. It just sounded tired.

"I want to talk to you," said Jessica. "Have coffee, or something. I want to talk things over with you, so we can figure out what to do from here."

"This is what she always does," muttered Emer. Rose hadn't even realized that Emer was now standing next to her. "She ignores him for three weeks or tells him that they need a break or she says she has feelings for someone else as well as him and she just needs time to think about it, and then when he's _finally _getting over her, she shows up, looking all rational and full of sense, and says that they should 'just talk' about things. And then talking leads to them getting back together. But the way she plays it, _she's _never the one who suggests that they get back together. And then, the next time they fight about something, she says he pressured her into getting back together. She's a nightmare."

Rose shook her head slightly, but she was still unable to tear her gaze away from the scene in front of her. She wasn't sure that she could stand to see Scorpius make his decision, but she also couldn't take her eyes off of him.

Like he'd just read her mind, Scorpius glanced over at her, ever-so-slightly. Their eyes locked together for one long moment before he looked away.

He licked his lips. Jammed his hands into his pockets. Lifted his head. Spoke.

"Jess," he said. "I'm not going to do this anymore."

Pause.

"I was in love with you," he said.

Pause.

"And in retrospect, I don't really think I mattered that much to you," he said. "At all."

Jessica parted her lips to speak, but no words come out.

Scorpius kept speaking. "You broke my heart, and I'm tired of being heartbroken. So no, we can't talk this over. We've done that enough. I'm tired of being the person you come back to when you're bored." He lifted his head slightly. "We're done. Goodbye."

With that, he turned and walked away, his eyes set straight ahead. Emer, Kyran, and the others stared in awe for a moment before rushing after him. Rose stayed where she was for a second, unable to fully believe what had just happened, before hurrying after him with the others.

Together, the group made their way through the doors of the club and out onto the pavement of the parking lot.

"_Holy shit_," said Emer, coming to a stop and planting herself in front of Scorpius the moment they exited the building. "Did you just- did that actually just happen? Did you really just do what I thought you did?"

Scorpius ran his hands through his hair. "I think," he said, and then stopped. "I am fairly certain I just told Jessica Umbridge that we're no longer dating and we will not be dating ever again, because she was completely horrible to me for the entirety of our long and stupid relationship. At least, I think that's what I said. That's what I was trying to say. Is that what I said?"

"That's it," said Lily, pointing at him. "That is _exactly _what you said." Rose wasn't sure when Lily had returned from her phone call with Louis, but that seemed like a minor detail at the moment.

"Except when you said it, you sounded stone-cold and emotionally dead," said Matt. "It was pretty wild, man."

"I think I _was _stone-cold and emotionally dead," said Scorpius. "Jessica seems to have that effect on me." His face broke into a smile. "Oh my god, I can't believe I did that. I mean, I know we weren't together before, but now we feel extra not-together."

"Permanently not together?" said Emer.

"Permanently, eternally not together," said Scorpius.

Rose said nothing. She was drinking in all of it: the chill of the air and the pride as Emer looked at Scorpius, the smiles on everyone's faces and the new confidence in Scorpius's eyes.

Emer flung her arms around Scorpius and hugged him tightly. "I am so freaking proud of you. So proud."

"Emer, you were amazing in there," said Dominique, laughing. "You were like a super fierce, hella pissed-off pixie."

"That about sums her up," said Kyran.

"You know what I think this calls for?" said Emer.

"Celebratory Scorpius-broke-up-with-his-girlfriend drinks?" suggested Dominique.

"Pizza?" said Matt, looking hopeful.

"Seconded!" said Kyran.

"Possibly some chocolate-chip cookies," said Lily, nodding.

"Yes, yes, all of that," said Emer. "But _first_, this calls for a group hug."

"You think everything calls for a group hug, you nerd," said Kyran, but even as he spoke, he stepped up to Emer and Scorpius and flung his arms around them.

"Why the hell not?" said Dominique. She moved forward wrapped her arms around the others. "Let's hug, people-I-met-six-hours-ago."

"Hey, you're our official stage manager now," said Matt, joining the hug.

"Yeah, seriously, there's no way we're letting you get out of that," said Emer.

"And Lily's your guitarist," said Dominique, pulling Lily into the hug. "By the way, Lil, I sent a video to James and he says your band might actually be better than his."

"All bands are better than his," said Lily.

And then it was only Rose standing on the outside of the hug, shivering slightly in the chilly air.

It was Scorpius who noticed this first, lifting his head above the others, his gray eyes meeting hers even as his friends tried to squish him to death.

"Come on, Rose, get in on this awkwardness," he said. "I promise we won't kill you."

Rose shook her head. "I don't really do group hugs."

"Oh, shut up," said Dominique. "You _so _do group hugs." She grabbed Rose's arm and yanked her into the group hug. Before Rose could even process what was happening, she was being squished to death, encircled by a circle of people so tangled together, it was hard to tell who was who.

"_Can't breathe_," Rose squeaked, but it was of no use. They only squished her more, until she was gasping with laughter and the cold of the night was entirely blocked out by the arms of her friends. Dominique was trying to tickle her and Kyran was saying that he could feel his masculinity disappearing and Scorpius's chin was poking into her shoulder and the stars overhead were bright and clear, and in that moment she felt nothing but happiness, unshakable and endless.

**XoXoX**

**AN: Thanks for reading! Leave a review and lmk how I did. Or scream at me for taking so long to update. Your choice. **


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